The whale sharks in Donsol are protected. Only snorkeling is allowed in Donsol Bay, although it is possible to dive with them in nearby areas. However, the best and most reliable interactions are in Donsol Bay, where the whale sharks come right up to the surface.

During whale shark interactions, you will go out on a small boat with a guide and a spotter. The local fishermen have been retrained as guides and spotters and will find you whale sharks - no problem! As soon as they see a whale shark, you ready yourself with mask, snorkel and fins, while the boat positions itself so you have time to jump in the water before the shark reaches you. And then you swim alongside these gentle giants....

Diving is also available at other places nearby including Manta Bowl, where you will have a good chance of seeing whale sharks on scuba along with other pelagics.

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Are the whale sharks guaranteed?

Whale sharks are wild animals so are never guaranteed, but Donsol is as guaranteed as you are going to get!

In Donsol during peak season, it is very, very rare not to see whale sharks. Most people will see at least 5. Your intrepid writer saw 15 when she was there one March and she barely even tried! On a good day you can see 20 and some people have even seen as many as FORTY FIVE WHALE SHARKS in one day. This is of course very rare and most people are exhausted way before they hit that many! But it is possible!

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Diving in Donsol If you want to dive in Donsol, a popular local dive site is the nearby Manta Bowl. Here you have the chance to see whale sharks while scuba diving as well as other pelagic visitors including manta rays (of course!) and occasional hammerheads.

Ticao Island also has excellent diving with pelagics, reefs and a huge variety of marine life.

When to come.

Although there are variations from year to year,generally whale shark season is from December to May. Best sightings arefrom February to April which is also the busiest time, so be sure to book well in advance. Whale sharks can sometimes be seen as early as November and as late as June.

Please contact us for an All-Inclusive-Package.from your hotel in Manila inclusive domestic flights and all transfers..

Whale sharks are the largest fish in the ocean. In Donsol, typical whale shark size is 4-12 meters. The largest whale shark on record anywhere in the world was 12.65 meters long, but reported sightings are up to 18 meters. They weigh up to 40 tons. Donsol is home to schools of these amazing creatures and they can be seen by divers and non-divers, swimmers and non swimmers, the old and the young alike.

They migrate to Donsol in vast numbers to take advantage of the dense food concentration of plankton and krill which is their main diet. Their mouths are up to 2 meters across containing over 300 rows filled with thousands of tiny teeth. But don't worry - whale sharks are only after the small stuff and filter feed plankton all day. The many rows of teeth play no role in feeding; in fact, they are reduced in size in the whale shark. Instead, the shark sucks in a mouthful of water, closes its mouth and expels the water through its gills.

With their distinctive patterned skins, each whale shark is unique and a global database has been made with over 2000 individual whale sharks identified.

Our community partner reports.Sharks, sharks, everywhere!!!

If you have been to Malapascua recently, maybe you have heard the fantastic news about the thresher sharks.

In late 2011, we were starting diving a new ‘secret’ dive site for thresher sharks. ‘Shark Wall’ is still part of Monad Shoal, and is just a little south of our original site.

‘Shark Wall’ by name and most definitely ‘Shark Wall’ by nature, there has been a massive increase in quality and quantity of sharks sightings. Shark sighting here have been ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!!! In our 9 years of diving on Malapascua Island, we have never had this many sharks around! It is usual to see 6-8 sharks on a dive. Often there are 20 sightings reported, and even as many as 30!!! So many that even the DMs stop counting!Gone are the days of dropping straight down to 22 meters and sitting on the reef waiting for one shark to appear, maybe two if you are very lucky. These days, on Shark Wall you will generally drop in at a shallower depth of 10-12 meters. You will likely see few other divers, swim around a lot more, and it is also possible to go over the wall in certain places. The shark encounters themselves have also been of a higher quality, with often several sharks at once, and sharks coming closer and for a longer time.

Whilst at the old ‘Shark Point’ the sharks were almost always coming to be cleaned, on Shark Wall, although cleaning still occurs, some seem to be just hanging out cruising the reef.

In February we also started seeing baby thresher sharks, including three at once! Incredibly cute, but also great news for the population numbers in Malapascua as it means they are breeding. As thresher mammas only give birth to small numbers at a time and there are at least three juveniles here right now, this may mean more than one recent litter. This is great news for an endangered species like the thresher shark!

All photographs on this page were taken in early February by Uwe Jacobs from Germany. In the series, the shark just kept coming and coming until it was almost kissing him, before making a last minute turn!

So there has never been a better time to come to Malapascua! Contact us to arrange your shark diving package now!...

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